21J4 ARBORETUM AND FRUT1CETUM. PART 111. 



dispose of the timber on his property, having completed a bargain with 

 the Petersburg merchant, sets his peasantry to work in picking out, 

 cutting down, ami dragging the trees from the forest to the lakes and 

 rivers. This work generally takes place during the winter months, in order 

 that even thing may be ready for floating the timber to Petersburg as soon 

 as the ice on the rivers and lakes breaks up. As the ground is generally 

 covered several feet deep with snow, and the trees judged to be sufficiently large 

 and sound for the foreign market lie widely apart, the workmen and others 

 employed in picking them out are compelled to wear snow shoes, to prevent 

 them from sinking in the snow. When the trees are found, they are cut 

 down with hatchets, and the head and branches lopped off. The trunk is 

 then stripped of its bark, and a circular notch is cut round the narrow end of it, 

 in which to fix the rope by which the horses are to drag the trunk along; and 

 a hole is made at the other end for a handspike, to steer the log over the 

 many obstacles which lie in its way. Many of these trees are 70 ft. in length, 

 and of proportionate diameter; and they are drawn by from 5 to 9 horses 

 each, "yoked in a straight line one before another, as the intricate narrow 

 paths in the wood will not permit of their going in any other way. One man 

 mounts upon the leading horse, and another upon the middle one, while 

 others support and guide with handspikes the large and distant end of the 

 tree, to raise it over the elevations of the snow, and make it glide smoothly 

 along. The conveyance of these large trees, the long line of the horses, and 

 the number of boors accompanying them through the forests, and across 

 the fields of snow, present an appearance very interesting." (Hoivison in Ed. 

 Phil. Jour., xii. p. 65.) In many cases, the trees are brought above 1000 

 versts (nearly 1000 English miles) before they are delivered to the merchant; 

 and they generally remain under his care " another winter, to be shaped and 

 fitted for exportation, in such a manner as to take up as little room as pos- 

 sible on shipboard;" so that the Russian timber does not reach the foreign 

 consumer till two years after it is cut down. When the trees are delivered 

 to the merchant they are carefully examined by him, and the nobleman, or 

 his overseer, to ascertain their soundness; and, for this purpose, a hatchet is 

 struck several times against them, and by the sound arising from the strokes 

 they judge of the soundness of the tree. The trees rejected, which are called 

 braake, are in the proportion of 1 in 10. The trunks are formed into rafts, 

 and floated down the rivers by the current; but on the lakes they are propelled 

 by sails or paddles, or, where practicable, by horses ; the boors who guide 

 the raft, living in a wooden hut constructed on it. Most of the pine timber 

 sent to Petersburg, lies beyond the Biel Ozer, or White Lake, the waters of 

 which, and of the Onega Lake, it has to traverse^ besides passing down several 

 rivers, before it reaches Petersburg. " Across these great lakes, resembling 

 seas in extent, the navigation is at times difficult and dangerous. Storms and 

 sudden gales of wind frequently occur, driving the vessels and timber rafts 

 from the sides into the middle of the lakes, out of sight of land, and often 

 proving destructive to them and to their crews." In order to prevent such 

 accidents, Peter the Great began the Ladoga Canal, along which the rafts are 

 conveyed with perfect safety, to the river Neva, the stream of which carries 

 them down to Petersburg, where they remain in the timber-yard of the 

 merchant till they are ready to be floated down to Cronstadt for foreign ex- 

 portation." (Ibid., p. 70.) 



In Germany there are extensive forests of pine and fir trees; and the fol- 

 lowing description of the rafts of timber on the Rhine will give an idea of 

 the mode by which these trees are conveyed down that river to the sea: — 

 " A little below Andernach, the village of Namedy appears on the left bank, 

 under a wooded mountain. The Rhine here forms a little bay, where the 

 pilots are ar customed to unite together the small rafts of timber floated 

 down the tributary rivers into the Rhine, and to construct enormous floats, 

 which are navigated to Dortrecht (Dort), and there sold. These ma- 

 chinei have the appearance of floating villages, each composed of twelve or 

 , little wooden nuts, on B huge platform of oak and deal timber. They 



